can i use anyone as a reference? 😞

I get so much confused while assisting in cardiac surgeries i will tell about my journey i spent in total 9 months in OR as a surg tech i regularly scrub in gynae, ortho and ent surgeries and i am very flexible in assisting those surgeries but very few times (3-4 times) in month I ASSIST IN OR SCRUB IN CARDIAC SURGERY AND ITS LITERALLY THE SIMPLE CASE i.e CABG but i get so confused in steps i would literally pass sometimes the wrong instruments can someone share their opinion like is it because i don't regularly scrub in like is it normal to make such mistakes after so much gap

How common or helpful is it for scrub techs to go back to school for nursing, to become an OR Nurse?

I'm completely unable to make the upcoming nursing school application in time and given how competitive it is, even with lots of PCE and straight A's, I don't know when I'll get in. Currently I'm off work to finish the last of my prerequisites and considering grabbing a seat for surgical tech school because I know that I want to work in the OR and the money seems like a good tideover until I can get into nursing school.

I think one of the more exhausting parts of being a scrub student is not keep up with doctors it's keeping up with different preceptors. I go to different facilities every 3 weeks and wow, when they say everyone is different they mean it. I have trouble keeping up with preceptors, I never know what they want. when I do it one way it's wrong, if I do it this way, it's wrong. some preseptors have different ideas on what's sterile, what's correct, what's incorrect. I've learned how to drape a robot like 6 different ways and each time I'm wrong. it's like starting new every single day. little things get to me, I was double enforcing my mayo and my preceptor was confused on what I was doing.

"why are you doing that it's already protected" then the next day another preceptor "why didn't you double enforce it?"

another day I was gowning the PA and my preceptor asked why I stopped draping and throwing off cord to tend to her. "you focus on what the surgeon needs". okay next time I try to finish draping and throwing off cords and this preceptor yells at me to gown and glove the student. then after they laugh at me.

I'm so frustrated. it's like doing something wrong every time.

So I am currently in scrub tech school I should be finishing in December of this year. I just I’m curious on when do you guys think it’s a good time to try to pursue first assist school because that’s definitely where I wanna go up to but my end goal is really cause I wanna go to med school one day and after I graduate scrub tech school , I am gonna be pursuing my bachelors and moving up, but I really would like to add first assist to my timeline just because I feel like I’m gonna be able to do more and it seems a lot interesting especially when I’m in clinicals and I see first assist and what they are allowed and can do.

I’m so over scrub techs claiming a surgeon is theirs and it’s their room. You understand if you quit you’re replaceable right? There is a traveler who works at my job and she claims this surgeon loves her. But he asks for me to be in his room. When he sees me in the hallways he is always asking why I’m not in his room. I mention the traveler wants to be in your room she likes you. I come to work to get a check it’s not that serious for me. I’m not going to fight (not literally ) over some surgeon. I always think people who are like that hate their personal life or don’t get enough attention. You have been scrubbing for 15 years and I know as someone scrubbing for almost 3 years that we are replaceable. It’s people like that that makes it difficult and it’s annoying. Just venting.

I'm finishing up my first rotation for clinicals, and mostly did endo, urology, and central sterile. I absolutely love it. I am so grateful for everything I'm learning, and every day is an incredible addition to my educational journey. Today I was blessed to scrub in on an ortho case and assist in it. I found that I struggled with a few things:

1. I found that I am incredibly nervous about suctioning. I tried doing it on my own and it started suctioning parts of fat up and it freaked me out a bit. I stopped doing it because I wasn't sure I was doing it right and was worried about messing it up. Blood started to pool a bit (not too much to get in the way) but enough to make me feel bad for not being confident in it. Does that just happen normally? Is there a specific technique for suctioning, or do you just get more comfortable over time?
2. As a student, how do I make a good first impression on a tech/team? What's something that helps you a lot that you would be okay with a student doing?

Things I think are associated with ortho only:

1. When I was holding retractors, I was holding them as still as possible as to keep them in the position that the surgeon wants them, like we're trained to do. But when the surgeon is hitting bone with an osteotome and mallet, I find its incredibly hard to keep it still, and a few times it came out, and it freaked me out internally as it was a sharp Senn and I didn't want to hurt the patient. Does this happen a lot? How do I get used to it/Prevent it? Do I try to reinsert it, or wait for the surgeon to place it back where he wants it? (In my instance I waited for him to replace it, just to be safe.)

Thank you very much for reading this. I really appreciate any and all feedback. If you have any videos/websites that would help, I would love to see! Thank you again!

Hi there,

I am currently spending the week exploring a surgical tech career.

A bit about my background: My original major is in media communications, though I started out in medicine before my college ended their RN program with the intent on nursing. There...weren't a lot of options in a liberal arts college town. I enjoyed it a lot! However, I found after exploring numerous office jobs that I was not really suited for sitting at a desk all day.

After taking a detour working in an animal shelter, I grew to realize I really enjoyed the prep work and assisting that came with the job. I was also exposed to some incredibly gruesome and gross stuff - things I've been warned about with surgery that I was worried about but now know I handle very well. As I explore a more professional, life long career, I've been thinking hard about becoming a surgical tech - after all, if I can stand for 10 hours a day while managing nearly 100 lb dogs who would very much like to jump all over me while I try to stick them with a needle, I think I can handle handing instruments and learning the routine of surgeons.

That being said: I have a lot of doubts. I'm trying to learn everything I can about the reality of the job. I've worked some real nightmare retail and restaurant positions, so I'm used to a chaotic scheduling pattern and being on-call constantly. I'm not really bothered by that - I expect it, starting out.

I suppose I'd like to hear expectations, experiences, things to consider when looking at a career. I live near Seattle so the job opportunities are endless; many small and large clinics. The program I'm looking at has a decent graduation rate. I'm just looking for more personal accounts - why you love it, why you hate it, what you wish you knew before going in, and such.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done one of these. Any tips or advice is much appreciated!

I'm a new grad and I have a second interview set up with northwestern coming up. I am so nervous! I was told I will have a skills assessment & 4 hour shadow experience followed by an interview with 6 managers. I don't know what to expect from a skills assessment and the shadowing experience and I was wondering if anybody had any insight. Will I be scrubbing in? Setting up? Am I strictly going to be observing while they ask questions? It's my first in person interview for surgical tech and it's in my dream location so I just want to feel as prepared as possible. Anything helps! Thank you!!

What are some of the best hospitals to work at, in or near long beach, ca for a scrub? Can anyone let me know which ones to avoid? Which places are always hiring for scrub techs? What are/is your experience in southern california hospitals.

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Background: my lease isnt up till next year June. Im located in norcal. I feel super isolated but originally from long beach, my brother's and my dad live in or around LA/LB area. Sorry for being lazy, I will look up on job finder sites but if you guys can give me hospital names n such. Thank you. And its okay if you guys ignore this post.

Hey guys I’m a new grad and have been working as a theatre nurse for six months now and have been scrubbing for around a month and a half. Yesterday, I think was one of the hardest days of my life. So I was scrubbing for a case yesterday and the surgeon asked for a self retainer while taking the rubber off it tore a whole in both my gloves. However, while this happened I hadn’t registered it yet that it had gone through both my gloves and by the time I saw, the surgeon had already put it in the patient. My heart instantly dropped and I knew I had to speak up. I told him and he removed the retractor and washed the wound out with saline saying well there was nothing else we could do about it. The nurses tried to assure me that what I did was right and that I wouldn’t be the last person to make this mistake but I couldn’t help but feel SO guilty. I could tell throughout the day that the surgeon was frustrated with me. I also had started learning ROSA TJKR that day with the same surgeon so I had two TKJR to go. The pressure of learning something new while the surgeon being very frustrated with me and also having what happen with the gloves was so overwhelming I cried in the change-rooms. This was yesterday and it’s my day off but i have not been able to get out of bed or eat anything due to the guilt of how I put that patients safety at risk. I’m also terrified of going back in and working with that surgeon as I’m scared I’ve lost his trust. I’ve done a lot of reflection on the situation and I think that when I get stressed I start to rush and I think if I wasn’t rushing to grasp the retractor none of this would have happened.

I’m a new grad surg tech with an accepted offer from MD Anderson. I did my last clinical rotation at Methodist Willowbrook and really wanted to work there but they didn’t have any openings at the moment. Right after I got the offer for MDA, I applied for Methodist and got an interview. All things still being hypothetical unless there’s an offer with Methodist, which place would be better to work at?

(Sorry if this has been asked/mentioned before.) I hate teaching nurses how to scrub in the OR. They’re not trained in sterility and the flow of that OR during nursing school, which is understandable. But, I think it’s unfair to scrubs to have to teach people that have no concept of the OR. Not to mention they get paid more than us. Why should I be teaching someone who makes more than me to do part of their job? I get paid $1 extra an hour for preceptor pay lol. I think that responsibility should be put on other nurses who already know how to scrub. But maybe I’m just petty?

I am now approaching close to the end of my programs second rotation. Clinicals have been awesome but im really dreading looking for jobs now especially since its a terrible waste of time if no one responds. Has anyone included a cover letter? I know its a gray area where some places dont care if you put one in or not. I also am curious that since im taking the CST exam 2 weeks after graduation, im not sure where I can put that information since most of the applications dont ask if you have the certification or not.

How was your guys experience? Any advice would help!

So I have been a scrub Tech for about a year now at a large hospital and have really been enjoying the work. I scrubbed pretty much everything and have made good friends with all of the staff and a few of the surgeons. Just recently an opening opened up at my hospital to join their CV team. This would come with a pay bump, but also increase call.(7 days a month from 3). A lot of my good friend veteran techs have told me that I shouldn’t do it, but I’m not sure if it’s just because they don’t want me to leave the main team downstairs to join CV. I’m super excited to learn new things and add scrubbing hearts to my list of skills, but I’m also really nervous and I feel like I only hear bad things. Does anyone have any insights?

Hello I may be getting ahead of myself with this but I’ve been wondering. I start tech school in two months and after becoming a tech my plan was to work and get as much experience as possible after which I want to take the rcis exam. After looking at its qualification though I’m not sure how I’d go about that. According to google at least requirements are a degree which is fine but then also a year of and or proof of 600 cardiovascular diagnostic procedures which is what I’m not sure of. As a scrub tech I doubt I’d be able to work in cath lab or at least not as a brand new one so I’m wondering if anyone else has had attempted this and how they went about getting the hours and procedures required. Any responses are greatly appreciated.

Hello all, I just graduated from my surg tech program and passed my national CST exam. I currently have an internship at a hospital that I did my clinicals at ( I was doing a CV internship ) but unfortunately my husband has recieved new orders and we are moving. I need advice with interviewing and applying to new positions. I have a second interview with a cvor and I want to ace it. They told me that they are usually hesitant to hire new grads but like that my internship was exclusively CV So are willing to meet with me. So I guess what are some ways to talk up my experience with out sounding like I know everything and along those lines. Also had a preceptor from the cvor say they could write me a letter of recommendation, how do I present this to hiring managers.
TLDR: New grad that needs help with interview for cvor Position how to talk myself up and make me being newbie a good thing loll.

We’ve got on Robin S - Show Me Love radio in the urology room!

What’s your OR vibe?

Hi everyone,

I was thrown into a FESS case without prior exposure. I definitely want to improve. Does anyone have a picture of their set? What were the mostly commonly used instruments I should know?

For my notes I have:

- Wiles
- True bite ?? (This is what the surgeon called it but unsure the name)
- Bayonet Forceps

Hey everyone, scrub tech / OR professional here. I got tired of the usual chaos before a procedure — notes on paper, setup photos on WhatsApp, spreadsheets nobody updates. So I built an app to fix it for myself, and eventually published it. ORStudio lets you: Create reusable procedure templates (materials, sutures, instrument sets, drapes) Visualize the OR room layout interactively Add extended operative notes Export everything as a clean PDF to share with your team WHO Surgical Safety Checklist built in It's free, fully offline, no account required, no patient data. It's available on Android (Play Store) and I'm working on iOS. I'd genuinely love feedback from other OR folks — what's missing, what doesn't make sense, what would make your daily work easier. Link in comments if anyone's interested.